Science Fiction and Fantasy Masterworks

I've recently become involved in a new reading project which will begin July 1st.  Put together by Patrick of Stomping on Yeti, a group of us will be reading the SF and Fantasy Masterworks.  The Masterworks are a series of science fiction and fantasy books published by Orion publishing group through its imprints Millennium and Gollancz.   Many of the books included are written by Hugo authors. The books are in series order instead of publication date order.   Each one of us will be reading one book a month and reviewing them on a group blog  (to be announced soon) until all the books on both lists have been read. The links lead to SF.com where you will find descriptions and pictures of their cool new covers. 



SF Masterworks

1   The Forever War**- Joe Haldeman
2   I Am Legend -  Richard Matheson
3   Cities in Flight - James Blish
4   Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -  Philip K. Dick
5   The Stars My Destination** - Alfred Bester
6   Babel-17 - Samuel R. Delany
7   Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
8   The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe
9   Gateway - Frederik Pohl
10 The Rediscovery of Man - Cordwainer Smith
11 Last and First Men - Olaf Stapledon
12 Earth Abides -  George R. Stewart
13 Martian Time-Slip -  Philip K. Dick
14 The Demolished Man -  Alfred Bester
15 Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
16 The Dispossessed -  Ursula K. Le Guin
17 The Drowned World -  J. G. Ballard
18 The Sirens of Titan -  Kurt Vonnegut
19 Emphyrio -  Jack Vance
20 A Scanner Darkly- Philip K. Dick
21 Star Maker - Olaf Stapledon
22 Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock
23 The Book of Skulls - Robert Silverberg
24 The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells
25 Flowers for Algernon -  Daniel Keyes
26 Ubik - Philip K. Dick
27 Timescape - Gregory Benford
28 More Than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
29 Man Plus - Frederik Pohl
30 A Case of Conscience - James Blish
31 The Centauri Device - M. John Harrison
32 Dr. Bloodmoney - Philip K. Dick
33 Non-Stop - Brian Aldiss
34 The Fountains of Paradise - Arthur C. Clarke
35 Pavane - Keith Roberts
36 Now Wait for Last Year - Philip K. Dick
37 Nova - Samuel R. Delany
38 The First Men in the Moon - H. G. Wells
39 The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke
40 Blood Music - Greg Bear
41 Jem - Frederik Pohl
42 Bring the Jubilee - Ward Moore
43 VALIS - Philip K. Dick
44 The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin
45 The Complete Roderick - John Sladek
46 Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick
47 The Invisible Man - H. G. Wells
48 Grass - Sheri S. Tepper
49 A Fall of Moondust - Arthur C. Clarke
50 Eon - Greg Bear
51 The Shrinking Man - Richard Matheson
52 The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K. Dick
53 The Dancers at the End of Time - Michael Moorcock
54 The Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth
55 Time Out of Joint - Philip K. Dick
56 Downward to the Earth - Robert Silverberg
57 The Simulacra - Philip K. Dick
58 The Penultimate Truth - Philip K. Dick
59 Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
60 Ringworld** - Larry Niven
61 The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman
62 Mission of Gravity  - Hal Clement
63 A Maze of Death - Philip K. Dick
64 Tau Zero - Poul Anderson
65 Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
66 Life During Wartime - Lucius Shepard
67 Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm
68 Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
69 Dark Benediction - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
70 Mockingbird - Walter Tevis
71 Dune** - Frank Herbert
72 The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress**  - Robert A. Heinlein
73*** The Man in the High Castle** -  Philip K. Dick

** Also printed in hardback
***Due to printing error has 72 on it



Fantasy Masterworks


1 The Book of the New Sun, Volume 1: Shadow and Claw - Gene Wolfe
2 Time and the Gods - Lord Dunsany
3 The Worm Ouroboros - E.R. Eddison
4 Tales of the Dying Earth - Jack Vance
5 Little, Big - John Crowley
6 The Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny
7 Viriconium - M. John Harrison
8 The Conan Chronicles, Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle - Robert E. Howard
9 The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll
10 The Compleat Enchanter: The Magical Misadventures of Harold Shea - L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
11 Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirrlees
12 The Book of the New Sun, Volume 2: Sword and Citadel - Gene Wolfe
13 Fevre Dream- George R. R. Martin
14 Beauty - Sheri S. Tepper
15 The King of Elfland's Daughter - Lord Dunsany
16 The Conan Chronicles, Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon - Robert E. Howard
17 Elric - Michael Moorcock
18 The First Book of Lankhmar - Fritz Leiber
19 Riddle-Master-  Patricia A. McKillip
20 Time and Again - Jack Finney
21 Mistress of Mistresses - E.R. Eddison
22 Gloriana or the Unfulfill'd Queen - Michael Moorcock
23 The Well of the Unicorn - Fletcher Pratt
24 The Second Book of Lankhmar - Fritz Leiber
25 Voice of Our Shadow - Jonathan Carroll
26 The Emperor of Dreams - Clark Ashton Smith
27 Lyonesse I: Suldrun's Garden - Jack Vance
28 Peace - Gene Wolfe
29 The Dragon Waiting - John M. Ford
30 Corum: The Prince in the Scarlet Robe - Michael Moorcock
31 Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams - C.L. Moore
32 The Broken Sword - Poul Anderson
33 The House on the Borderland and Other Novels - William Hope Hodgson
34 The Drawing of the Dark - Tim Powers
35 Lyonesse II and III: The Green Pearl and Madouc - Jack Vance
36 The History of Runestaff - Michael Moorcock
37 A Voyage to Arcturus - David Lindsay
38 Darker Than You Think - Jack Williamson
39 The Mabinogion - Evangeline Walton
40 Three Hearts & Three Lions -  Poul Anderson
41 Grendel - John Gardner
42 The Iron Dragon's Daughter - Michael Swanwick
43 WAS - Geoff Ryman
44 Song of Kali - Dan Simmons
45 Replay - Ken Grimwood
46 Sea Kings of Mars and Other Worldly Stories - Leigh Brackett
47 The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
48 The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia A. McKillip
49 Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
50 The Mark of the Beast and Other Fantastical Tales - Rudyard Kipling


How many of these books have you already read?  

Whatever!!!! Unicorn Pegasus Kitten fan fiction contest

Unicorn Pegasus Kitten

Featuring

Wil Wheaton and John Scalzi

Artist Jeff Zugale

What's it all about!

The Unicorn Pegasus Kitten Painting was unveiled at the Phoenix Comicon over the weekend and   John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton, along with Subterranean Press introduced  in a contest to benefit the Lupus Alliance of America.

"Write a 400 to 2,000 word story describing the picture above. Any form of fan fiction is acceptable except slash. The winner of the contest will be paid for their story (10 cents a word), win a prize pack of books from Subterranean Press, and will have their story published in a special electronic chapbook featuring stories about the painting, written by Scalzi, Wheaton, Catherynne Valente and Patrick Rothfuss, to be published later this year, with profits to benefit the Lupus Foundation of America. E-mail the stories with the text in the e-mail to fanfic@scalzi.com by 11:59pm Eastern, June 30, 2010. One entry per person."

Go to Whatever for more information where you'll also find some amazing video of John and Wil performing "Don't Stop Believing."

Beginnings: 1954 Hugo - Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

"It was a pleasure to burn.

It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.  With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history.  With his  symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black.   He strode in a swarm of fireflies.  He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house.  While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning.

Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame.

He knew that when he returned to the firehouse, he might wink at himself, a minstrel man, burnt corked, in the mirror.  Later, going to sleep, he would feel the fiery smile still gripped by his face muscles, in the dark.  It never went away, that smile, it never ever went away, as long as he remembered."   (Chapter 1 excerpt pg 3- 4)

2010 Science Fiction Hall of Fame Inductees

2010 Science Fiction Hall of Fame Inductees

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Ceremony will be held during the Science Fiction Awards weekend June 25  - 27th in  Seattle, Washington.  The 2010 inductees are:

Roger Zelazny

 May 13, 1937 to June 14, 1995 

Hugo Award Winner in 1966 and 1968.    His works include:  Lord of Light, This Immortal,  The Chronicles of Amber, Jack of Shadows and many more.  "Roger Zelazny was one of the foremost writers of science fiction's New Wave movement, authoring short stories and novels packed with both psychological and mythological structures."

Douglas Trumbull

April 8, 1942

American Film Director and Special Effects Supervisor.  The 1968 film 2001 Space Odyssey "utilized Trumbull's own process of slit-scan photography to obtain the more abstract sequences. This groundbreaking technique contributed to the film's critical acclaim and established Trumbull as one of the top names in motion picture special effects."   He was also responsible for the special effects for science fiction films: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), and Blade Runner (1982)

Richard Matheson

February 20, 1926

American author and screenwriter in fantasy, science fiction and horror.  He had several novels  adapted for film including  I am Legend.  The novel was adapted to film as The Last Man on Earth in 1964, as The Omega Man in 1971, and as I Am Legend in 2007.  "Matheson's publications and film work often explore themes of human existence facing alternate reality and incorporate the paranormal, terror, survival and ardor."

 Octavia E. Butler 

June 22, 1947 to February 2006

American science fiction author and won the Hugo Award for her short stories Speech Sound in 1984 and Bloodchild in 1985.  She wrote several novels including Kindred, The Patternists Series and Lilith's Brood.  She is "notable for being a female African American writer of science fiction—a rarity—but mainly she's notable as one of the most eminent science fiction writers overall."

New cool Sci Fi Movie - Inception

Opening July 16, 2010

Now this looks interesting, weird, but interesting.  Inception staring Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard and Michael Caine. The synopsis according to IMDB

Acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan directs an international cast in an original sci-fi actioner that travels around the globe and into the intimate and infinite world of dreams. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved.

Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossibleinception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming. This summer, your mind is the scene of the crime.

Want to find out more - go to www.inceptionmovie.warnerbros.com

Aussiecon Membership live and online

Wouldn't you like to have a say so in who wins the Hugo Award for Best Novel or Best Novella or Best Graphic Story, etc.   I always envied those folks who got to take part in voting for the awards. Today, thanks to John Scalzi, I discovered I could register online to become a member of Aussiecon.  Along with the membership, is the right to vote for the 2010 Hugo Award and John C. Campbell best writer award nominees.   Aussiecon has released an electronic 2010 voters packet which contains the full length works of the nominees:

Best Novel:

• Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Tor)
• The City & The City by China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
• Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
• Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
• Wake by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)

Best Novella 

• Act One" by Nancy Kress (Asimov's 3/09)
• The God Engines by John Scalzi (Subterranean)
• "Palimpsest" by Charles Stross (Wireless; Ace; Orbit)
• Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow (Tachyon)
• "Vishnu at the Cat Circus" by Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days; Pyr; Gollancz)
• The Women of Nell Gwynne's by Kage Baker (Subterranean)

Best Novelette:

• Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 3/09)
• "The Island" by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2; Eos)
• "It Takes Two" by Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three; Night Shade Books)
• "One of Our Bastards is Missing" by Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three; Solaris)
• "Overtime" by Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09)
• "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09)

Best Short Story

• "The Bride of Frankenstein" by Mike Resnick (Asimov’s 12/09)
• "Bridesicle" by Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09)
• "The Moment" by Lawrence M. Schoen (Footprints; Hadley Rille Books)
• "Non-Zero Probabilities" by N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld 9/09)
• "Spar" by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 10/09)

Best Related Work

• Canary Fever: Reviews by John Clute (Beccon) (Excerpt)
• Hope-In-The-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees by Michael Swanwick (Temporary Culture)
• The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children's and Teens' Science Fiction by Farah Mendlesohn (McFarland) (Excerpt)
• On Joanna Russ edited by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan)
• The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of SF Feminisms by Helen Merrick (Aqueduct) (Excerpt)
• This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is "I") by Jack Vance (Subterranean)

Best Graphic Story

• Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
• Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics) (Link to issues #10 and #11)
• Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
• Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment) (Link)
• Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler

Best Semiprozine

• Ansible edited by David Langford (Links)
• Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, & Cheryl Morgan
• Interzone edited by Andy Cox
• Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
• Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

Best Fanzine

• Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
• Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey & Mark Plummer
• CHALLENGER edited by Guy H. Lillian III (Link)
• Drink Tank edited by Christopher J Garcia, with guest editor James Bacon
• File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
• StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith (Links)

Best Professional Artist - (package includes works from the artists)

• Bob Eggleton
• Stephan Martiniere
• John Picacio
• Daniel Dos Santos
• Shaun Tan

Best Fan Artist

• Brad W. Foster (Link)
• Dave Howell
• Steve Stiles
• Taral Wayne

Best Fan Writer (package includes works by)

• Claire Brialey
• Christopher J Garcia
• James Nicoll
• Lloyd Penney
• Frederik Pohl (Link)

 John C. Campbell Award for Best Writer (includes works by)

• Saladin Ahmed
• Gail Carriger
• Felix Gilman
• Seanan McGuire
• Lezli Robyn

According to the folks at Aussicon:

The electronic versions of the work you see here are available to you through the efforts of the authors and artists who have been nominated, and we are grateful for their participation and willingness to share with Anticipation members. Please support these creators! Their work is available in bookstores and online. Thanks are also due to these authors' publishers, who have graciously allowed these works to be present in these packages.

Plus they are trusting that all supporting members will keep the information confidential and not share it so that the authors and publishers will continue to support this idea in the future.  I promise not to share it - solemn oath, cross my heart and scout's honor.  :)   The works are available in PDF, Word or Rich Text format so will be easy to read. 

    

You can sign up online for an attending membership which gives you attendance, voting rights and publications for Au $ 310 or supporting membership which gives you voting rights and publications for Au $ 70 ($68 u.s.)    I signed up for a supporting membership because I know I won't be able to go to Australia in September. But at least I'll be able to vote for who I think should get the Hugo.  How cool is that.  I've got my work cut out for me since all ballots are due by July 31, 2010.  

2010 Hugo Nominee: Robert J. Sawyer - Happy Birthday!!!

 Happy 50th Birthday to Robert J. Sawyer

Robert J. Sawyer is one of the six nominees for the 2010 Hugo Award in the Best Novel category for "Wake."

Excerpt from Chapter one:  

Not darkness, for that implies an understanding of light.

      Not silence, for that suggests a familiarity with sound.

      Not loneliness, for that requires a knowledge of others

But still, faintly, so tenuous, that if it were any less it wouldn't exist at all: awareness

     Nothing more than that.   Just awareness - a vague, ethereal sense of being.

Being...but not becoming.  No marking of time, no past or future --- only an endless, featureless now, and, just barely there in that boundless moment, inchoate and raw, the dawning of perception...

Makes me want to go out and buy "Wake" right now.  Wake is book one in the WWW trilogy: Wake, Watch, and Wonder.  The first two are available now and you can read first chapter excerpts on the www trilogy web site. 

Sawyer, born April 29, 2010 in Ottawa Canada, sold his first short science fiction story in 1979 to the Strasenburgh Planetarium which they produced as part of a dramatic starshow trilogy called "Futurescapes" in 1980.   While attending Ryerson University and working on his Bachelor of Applied Arts in Radio and Television Arts, he had his first story published in  Ryerson's 1980 Literary Annual - White Wall Review.  

The story "The Contest" was included in the anthology 100 Great Fantasy Short Stories released in 1984.  After graduating from Ryerson, he spent the next six years writing mainly non fiction freelance articles for various American and Canadian magazines.   His true love however was writing science fiction and he decided to concentrate on writing novels full time.   


His debut novel was Golden Fleece published in 1999

The story is unique in that is it told from the viewpoint of the Starcology Argo's ship's computer, Jason. One of the ship's crew is murdered and the finger points straight at the artificially intelligent computer.  



After that he wrote Farseer, book 1 in the  Quintaglio Ascension series which revolved around the world of a group of intelligent dinosaurs.

His next book, End of an Era continued with the dinosaur theme but took us back through time travel to the beginning of the world to find out what really happened to the dinosaurs. 


Sawyer explored many interesting themes in his books including SETI, artificial intelligence, time travel, dinosaurs, psychology, murder and the nature of consciousness to name a few.  


In his Neanderthal Parallax series, he explored the question:  what would have happened if there was another world in which the neanderthals have survived and became the dominant species.   How would their world differ from ours?  He won the 2003 Hugo award for Hominids.

In his next standalone book, he went on to explore in Mindscan what would happen if in order to avoid suffering an inherited  debilitation disease that would turn you into a vegetable, if you could have your mind scanned and assume an android body while your body is shipped off to the moon.   Would the people you know accept you?  If a cure was discovered, could you be scanned back into your body?   




Which brings us to his WWW trilogy.  WWW.Watch was just released on April 6th and continues Caitlin's story from WWW.Wake.    He is currently working on Wonder and I'm not sure when it will be released. 



Sawyer has also written a number of short stories which are available to read online.  He has won many awards and accolades for his work over the years.   According to the Ottawa Citizen he is the "Dean of Science Fiction."   If you'd like to know more about Robert J. Sawyer, check out his autobiography on sfwriter.com


I have a mini challenge for you all - read all six hugo nominees this year.   I'm looking forward to reading WWW.Wake as *gasp* I haven't read any of his books yet.  


Join me in wishing Robert J. Sawyer a wonderful and joyous Happy 50th Birthday!

Mind Voyage Flight Status!

Time for a flight status check.  How are you progressing with your voyages?    I didn't have enough fuel to get beyond earth's atmosphere and have been orbiting earth for a while.   I'm coming back in to refuel and make sure I have enough fuel this time to get beyond earth's atmosphere.  Plus ground control has been monitoring my activities, telling me I've missed a few in flight procedural and checklist reports and I need to improve my job performance as commander. 

So far I have finished:

The Demolished Man (review) by Alfred Bester 

Dune by Frank Herbert  (review)  (1966 Hugo winner)

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (2006 Hugo Winner)  Review will be forthcoming

Under the Dome (review) by Stephen King (side trip)

Eye of the World (review) by Robert Jordan (side trip)

Now that I've refueled, will be taking off and shooting for the moon again.  The following books are waiting for me onboard.

Moon Voyage:

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury(1954 Hugo)

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (1960 Hugo)

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller (1961 Hugo)

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein (1967 Hugo)

To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Phillip Jose Farmer (1972 Hugo)

The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold (1991 Hugo)

Shoot to Mercury to complete the Robert Heinlein Quest and read:

Friday

Glory Road 

On to Uranus and Side Trip through the 70's

A Choice of Gods by Clifford Simak

Unclassified side trips

Bearing an Hourglass by Piers Anthony

Death Dream by Ben Bova

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

There are so many other books I want to read on my wishlist including the 2010 Hugo nominees along with Philip Dick's The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I have the your eyes are bigger than my stomach syndrome when it comes to books.   The plan is to get through the books on my nightstand before buying anything else.  Easier said than done, but I will be strong.  I hear the whisper Resistance is futile being whispered in my ear.  

I promised ground control I would check in on a regular basis so will be reporting in at least once a week.  Ground control told me to take advantage of my flight crew, fellow mind voyagers and passengers in order to remain on schedule.   I would appreciate any suggestions you have, plus authors or books you like to see spotlighted, or if you would like to take control for a day and be a guest poster,  please let me know.   

"Think left and think right and think low and think high.  Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!  ~Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!"

How are you progressing with your voyages?

Poetry and Science Fiction

 Poetry and Science Fiction

We are stepping into the twilight zone for a time because after all, this is National Poetry month.   Are there any science fiction authors who write poetry.  Are any of our hugo winners poets?  Surprisingly, yes.  I did find several including Ursula Le Guin, Neil Gaiman and Joe Haldeman.  Plus I discovered the Science Fiction Poetry Association.  

Locks

by Neil Gaiman

We owe it to each other to tell stories,

as people simply, not as father and daughter.

I tell it to you for the hundredth time:

"There was a little girl, called Goldilocks,

for her hair was long and golden,

and she was walking in the Wood and she saw — "

"— cows." You say it with certainty,

remembering the strayed heifers we saw in the woods

behind the house, last month.

"Well, yes, perhaps she saw cows,

but also she saw a house."

"— a great big house," you tell me.

"No, a little house, all painted, neat and tidy."

"A great big house."

You have the conviction of all two-year-olds.

I wish I had such certitude.

"Ah. Yes. A great big house.

And she went in . . ."

I remember, as I tell it, that the locks

Of Southey's heroine had silvered with age.

The Old Woman and the Three Bears . . .

Perhaps they had been golden once, when she was a child.

And now, we are already up to the porridge,

"And it was too— "

"— hot!"

"And it was too— "

— cold!"

And then it was, we chorus, "just right."

The porridge is eaten, the baby's chair is shattered,

Goldilocks goes upstairs, examines beds, and sleeps,

unwisely.

But then the bears return.

Remembering Southey still, I do the voices:

Father Bear's gruff boom scares you, and you delight in it.

When I was a small child and heard the tale,

if I was anyone I was Baby Bear,

my porridge eaten, and my chair destroyed,

my bed inhabited by some strange girl.

You giggle when I do the baby's wail,

"Someone's been eating my prridge, and they've eaten it —"

"All up," you say. A response it is,

Or an amen.

The bears go upstairs hesitantly,

their house now feels desecrated. They realize

what locks are for. They reach the bedroom.

"Someone's been sleeping in my bed."

And here I hesitate, echoes of old jokes,

soft-core cartoons, crude headlines, in my head.

One day your mouth will curl at that line.

A loss of interest, later, innocence.

Innocence; as if it were a commodity.

"And if I could," my father wrote to me,

huge as a bear himself, when I was younger,

"I would dower you with experience, without experience."

and I, in my turn, would pass that on to you.

But we make our own mistakes. We sleep

unwisely.

It is our right. It is our madness and our glory.

The repetition echoes down the years.

When your children grow; when your dark locks begin to silver,

when you are an old woman, alone with your three bears,

what will you see? What stories will you tell?

"And then Goldilicks jumped out of the window and she ran —

Together, now: "All the way home."

And then you say, "Again. Again. Again."

We owe it to each other to tell stories.

These days my sympathy's with Father Bear.

Before I leave my house I lock the door,

and check each bed and chair on my return.

Again.

Again.

Again..

And I was fascinated to find that Ursula Le Guin has translated the poems of the Latin American Poet I am studying for my Nobel Literature class - The Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral.  Gabriela is the first and only Latin American woman to win a Nobel prize for Literature for her writings. 

Canto que Amabas

Yo canto lo que tú amabas, vida mía,

por si te acercas y escuchas, vida mía,

por si te acuerdas del mundo que viviste,

 al aterdecer yo canto, sombra mía.

Yo no quiero enmudecer, vida mía.

¿Cómo sin mi grito fiel me hallarías?

¿Cuál señal, cuál me declara, vida mía?

Soy la misma que fue tuya, vida mía.

Ni lenta ni trascordada ni perdida.

Acude al anochecer, vida mía,

ven recordando un canto, vida mía,

si la canción reconoces de aprendida

y si mi nombre recuerdas todavía.

Te espero sin plazo y sin tiempo.

No temas noche, nebline ni aguacero.

 Acude con sendero o sin sendero.

Llámame adonde tú eres, alma mía,

y marcha recto hacia mí, compañero.

Translation 

What You Loved

Life of my life, what you loved I sing.

If you're near, if you're listening,

think of me now in the evening:

shadow in shadows, hear me sing.

Life of my life, I can't be still.

What is a story we never tell?

How can you find me unless I call?

Life of my life, I haven't changed,

not turned aside and not estranged.

Come to me as the shadows grow long,

come, life of my life, if you know the song

you used to know, if you know my name.

I and the song are still the same.

Beyond time or place I keep the faith.

Follow a path or follow no path,

never fearing the night, the wind,

call to me, come to me, now at the end,

walk with me, life of my life, my friend.

And Joe Haldeman, whose poem won the Rhysling Award for the best science fiction poem of the  year.  Unfortunately I don't know which year. 

Eighteen years old, October eleventh

Drunk for the first time in her life,
she tossed her head in a horsey laugh
and that new opal gift sailed off her sore earlobe,
in a graceful parabola,
pinged twice on the stone porch floor,
and rolled off to hide behind the rose bushes.

It gathered dust and silt for two centuries.
The mansion came down in a war.

For twelve thousand years
the opal hid in dark rubble, unmoving.
An arctic chill worked down through it, and deeper,
and glaciers pushed the rubble thousands of miles,
very fast, as opals measure time.

After millions of years (the Sun just measurably cooler)
a female felt the presence of a stone,
and waved away yards of snow and ice;
waved away dozens of yards
of frozen dirt and crushed rock,
and held, in what resembled a hand,
this bauble of gold and rainbow stone:

felt the sense of loss in that silly girl,
dead as a trilobite;
felt the pain that had gone into penetrating
the soft hyperbolic paraboloid of cartilage
that then displayed the decoration;
felt its sexual purpose:
to attract a dissimilar pattern of genes
to combine and recombine a trillion trillion times,
and become herself.

She briefly cherished the stone,
and returned it to its waiting.

 

 

Interested in finding out more about Science Fiction Poetry.   Head on over to the Science Fiction Poetry Association  and find more.  

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